I’ve been a supporter of NAT (National AIDS Trust), the UK’s leading HIV campaigning charity, for five years now. One of the reasons I support them is I am passionate about increasing the public’s understanding of HIV – not only to reduce the spread of the virus, but to help eradicate the stigma that unfortunately many people with HIV face.

Over the next year NAT will be campaigning for sex education in schools to better tackle the issue of HIV and address same-sex relationships.

This is an issue that is close to my heart.

The Australian Football League will take further steps to make homophobia unacceptable in the sport after backing the No To Homophobia campaign in August last year.

Now the players themselves are stepping forward with the AFL Players Association set to launch its own campaign to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) on May 17.

Another former professional athlete came out last week – 6ft 7ins Jamaican-born NFL offensive tackle Kwame Harris.

With news of LGBT equality in the news daily, one may wonder why this is news at all. But it is. The world of sports is quickly becoming the last closet, where gays and lesbians hide their sexual orientation. In a homophobic testosterone-driven sport, like American football, Harris concealment is understandable.

Equality campaigners in Scotland warned that an anti-gay educational ban repealed in 2000 (called Section 28) could be introduced by 'stealth' as an add on to Scotland's gay marriage bill.

Gay-friendly British rugby star Ben Cohen has called on sporting authorities to do more to tackle homophobia.

He was speaking at a debate at Britain’s National Student Pride today (2 March).

The panel session on homophobia in sport also featured former Premiership footballer Graeme Le Saux who explained how he became the victim of homophobia in soccer, despite being straight.

Cohen is a British former rugby star who now has his own brand of underwear and campaigns to beat homophobic bullying.

Continuing our series of profiling the LGBT sports clubs around the world, in this issue we catch up with Donald Vaughan and Trevor Burchick MBE of Manchester’s aquatics club Northern Wave in north west England.

When was the Northern Wave club established?

Northern Wave was established in 1998. It started as an NHS [National Health Service] project to begin to tackle heart disease in Greater Manchester, the project was called Team Manchester.

If you’re aged about 40 or older, you’ll probably have a pretty clear memory of the outbreak of HIV and the early health campaigns that seemed to portray gay sex as a dangerous game of ‘Russian roulette’.

Across the world, the majority of investment in the battle against HIV is spent on prevention campaigns (as opposed to research for a vaccine or cure), but when you look at the statistics, it does seem that gay men are still being infected by HIV at alarming rates.

Since Chad Griffin took over the reins of the Human Rights Campaign last June, three US states made history by passing ballot measures making gay marriage legal.

Now the head of the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the US is looking ahead to 2013 with even more ambitious goals.

Viewers who know Garret Dillahunt is as the often clueless dad - and granddad - of a dysfunctional family on the sitcom Raising Hope will be in for quite a surprise when they see his new film Any Day Now.

He plays a closeted gay lawyer in the 1970a who becomes romantically involved with a drag queen (played by Alan Cumming) who seeks his help in fighting to gain custody of his drug addict neighbor's abandoned child who has Down's Syndrome.

Back when I was at school, the most exciting things about teachers were knowing their first names and guessing if they were gay.

I’m now 44, a school leader, the children call me Shaun and they know I’m gay.

At Alfred Salter Primary School in London we have a fantastic relationship built upon high aspiration, authenticity and mutual respect.

Three years ago I reconsidered my desire to be labelled as an effective teacher first and a gay man last when data showed that 75% of our pupils were being subjected to daily homophobic abuse.

A video series designed to educate young people on the basics of HIV has been launched by Terrence Higgins Trust.

The series, produced by digital health publisher Streaming Well, has been commissioned to tackle a perceived ignorance on HIV amongst young people.

The annual rate of new HIV cases in the UK has almost doubled in the past decade, whilst people’s knowledge of how it is transmitted has declined.

Stonewall Cymru has called on Welsh schools to do more to tackle homophobic bullying.

The Welsh lesbian, gay and bisexual campaign organization wants to see ‘comprehensive and effective plans to tackle homophobic bullying’ that create an ‘inclusive learning culture’.

They want all school inspectors trained on gay issues. And they say teachers’ initial training needs to include how to fight homophobic bullying and support lesbian, gay and bi young people.